George Pell

Template:Infobox cardinalbiog George Cardinal Pell, AC, DD, STL, MEd, DPhil, FACE (born 8 June 1941) is an Australian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Pell currently serves as Archbishop of Sydney and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003. Since his appointment to Sydney, Pell has become one of the most well-known Christian leaders in Australia.

Life

George Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to George and Margaret (née Burke) Pell. He was educated at Loreto Convent School and St Patrick's College at his mother's insistence, although his father was an Anglican. He signed to play for the Richmond Football Club (of which he is now Vice-Patron) in 1959 but later decided to study for ordination. After his seminary studies at Corpus Christi College in Werribee he was ordained to the priesthood on December 16, 1966 by Grégoire-Pierre Cardinal Agagianian in St Peter's Basilica.

He received a licentiate in theology from Pontifical Urbaniana University in 1967, a doctorate of philosophy in Church History from the University of Oxford in 1971 and a master's degree in education from Monash University in 1982. After graduation from Oxford, Pell worked as an assistant priest in parishes in Victoria. He was Visiting Scholar at Campion Hall in 1979 and at St Edmund's College in 1983.

Pell, after serving as Principal of Aquinas College (which later became the Ballarat campus of the Australian Catholic University) and Rector of his alma mater of Corpus Christi College, was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne and Titular Bishop of Scala on March 30, 1987. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 21 from Archbishop Thomas Little, with Bishops Ronald Mulkearns and Joseph O'Connell serving as co-consecrators. Pell was named seventh Archbishop of Melbourne on July 16, 1996, receiving the pallium from Pope John Paul II on June 29, 1997. He was later appointed eighth Archbishop of Sydney on March 26, 2001, and received the pallium from John Paul again on the following June 29.

Pell has been a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1990 to 1995 and again since 2002. From 1990 to 2000, he was a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In April 2002, John Paul II named him President of the Vox Clara Committee to advise the Congregation for Divine Worship on English translations of liturgical texts. In December 2002 he was appointed to the Presidential Committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family, having previously served as a Consultor to the Council.

Pell has written widely in religious and secular magazines, learned journals and newspapers in Australia and overseas and regularly speaks on television and radio. In September 1996 Oxford University Press published his Issues of Faith and Morals, written for senior secondary classes and parish groups. His other publications include The Sisters of St Joseph in Swan Hill 1922-72 (1972), Catholicism in Australia (1988), Rerum Novarum - One Hundred Years Later (1992), Catholicism and the Architecture of Freedom (1999) and Be Not Afraid, a collection of homilies and reflections published in 2004. A biography of Pell was published by Queensland journalist Tess Livingstone in 2002.

Church leader

Since Pell's elevation to Archbishop of Melbourne - and more particularly since his translation to Sydney - he has taken a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining a strict adherence to his understanding of Catholic orthodoxy. As his rapid promotion might indicate, he appeared to have the full confidence of John Paul II and his closest advisers such as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

Pell has consistently worked with other church leaders in his efforts to strengthen the faith of Christians and their contribution to Australian life. This was a difficult task in Sydney, which had a long tradition of sectarian hostility between Catholics and Protestants. The Anglican Church of Australia was aggressively Evangelical and historically anti-Catholic, but Pell worked co-operatively with his Anglican counterpart, Dr Peter Jensen, on political issues, while avoiding theological controversies. This was referred to in Sydney as "the ecumenism of the right".

In defending the importance of religious belief in building a just society Pell has also worked with the leaders of non-Christians faiths, arguing in 2001 that "the most significant religious change in Australia over the past 50 years is the increase of people without religion, now about one fifth of the population. All monotheists, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, must labour to reverse this. We must not allow the situation to deteriorate as it had in Elijah’s time, 850 years before Christ, where monotheism was nearly swamped by the aggressive paganism of the followers of Baal."

Styles of George Cardinal Pell
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Sydney

On September 28, 2003, John Paul II announced that he would raise Pell, and 28 others, to the College of Cardinals, and in the consistory of the following October 21, Pell was created Cardinal Priest of S. Maria Domenica Mazzarello. For the first time ever, from Pell's elevation to the cardinalate in 2003 until Edward Cardinal Clancy's 80th birthday on 13 December 2003, there were three Australian cardinal electors (had a papal election become necessary), including Cardinal Clancy and Edward Cardinal Cassidy.

Pell was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. While there was a little speculation in the Australian media that he had an outside chance of becoming Pope himself, international commentary on the papal succession (aside from one Italian source) did not mention Pell as a contender. However, Pell was mentioned as a possible successor to Benedict XVI as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This position was given to William Levada, former Archbishop of San Francisco.

In 2006 Pell made a successful bid for Sydney to host the 2008 World Youth Day. World Youth Day is one of the largest regular international gatherings of young people in the world, often attracting crowds in the millions. The 2008 event will bring Pope Benedict XVI on his first papal visit to Australia and is likely to attract more overseas visitors than the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "We take it for granted that people will always give to the poor and be concerned about social justice," Pell said soon after winning the bid, in remarks which spelled out his pastoral priorities. "But this doesn’t just happen by itself. Many great civilisations have shown no regard for these values at all and have even considered them weaknesses...Every society requires a goodly percentage of active believers to ensure that the values of a fair go and respect for others are promoted, and passed on the next generation. World Youth Day will make a powerful contribution to this vital work".

Controversies

Pell's defence of traditional values has led some to consider him an ally of many in the conservative Howard Government, most particularly the prominently Catholic Health Minister Tony Abbott. Abbott has been among the most forthright in the federal cabinet in his opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, and several other social issues where the Church is in conflict with social liberals. Unsurprisingly, Pell supported the Howard Government when it passed legislation banning same-sex marriage in all its forms in 2004, and when it allowed debate on a private member's bill to overturn legislation in the Northern Territory which legalised euthanasia in 1996. He has also supported government funding for faith-based schools when this became an issue in the 2004 federal election. But Pell has consistently criticised the Howard Government for its policy of rejecting asylum seekers and on Industrial Relations. Some on the left of Australian politics have been irritated by his scepticism towards global warming (see below).

Despite media expectations to the contrary Pell's defence of Catholic orthodoxy has won him strong support among devout Catholics and young people. His critics within the church sometimes rehearse arguments such as those made by Chris Sidoti, a liberal Catholic and formerly Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, who claims that Pell "stands for the kind of Catholicism that we saw in the Middle Ages. He is totally centred around the hierarchy, and dismissive of alternative views." However Pell has often been wary of what he calls the "callousness" of unrestrained capitalism, and as head of Australian Catholic Relief (now Caritas Australia) put an end to corrupt siphoning of donations to political causes instead of humanitarian aid. He also supported the 1999 referendum on whether Australia should become a republic, while respecting the failure of that referendum. Pell attended an 80th birthday service for HM The Queen Elizabeth II in Sydney in April 2006.

On sexuality

Pell has received much publicity on Catholic attitudes to sexuality, particularly homosexuality. "Christian teaching on sexuality is only one part of the Ten Commandments, of the virtues and vices, but it is essential for human wellbeing and especially for the proper flourishing of marriages and families, for the continuity of the human race," Pell said upon becoming Archbishop of Sydney. "Any genuine religion has two important moral tasks; firstly, to present norms and ideals, goals for our striving; and secondly, to offer aids for our weakness, forgiveness and healing for every wrong doer and sinner who repents and seeks forgiveness."

Pell supported Pope John Paul II's view that issues such as the ordination of women could not be discussed within the Church and declared that abandoning the tradition of clerical celibacy would be a "serious blunder"..

As Archbishop of Melbourne, and later as Archbishop of Sydney, Pell attracted attention for refusing the sacraments to self-declared homosexuals. "Anybody who is sinning seriously should not go to communion", he said in 2001. "So a gay person who has repented, or a gay person who is not active, is more than welcome to communion." Activists of the Rainbow Sash movement of self-declared gay and lesbian Catholics have appeared on Pentecost Sunday at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne and St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney wearing rainbow sashes and requesting communion. Pell has consistently and steadfastly refused them communion, offering blessings which are in turn refused.

In January 2004 his cousin Monica Hingston, a former nun who had lived in a lesbian relationship for 19 years published an open letter in the press. Hingston said that she had twice sent the letter to Pell privately, but had received no reply. She had written the letter after the Vatican reaffirmed the Catholic teaching that homosexual acts were "serious depravity" [3]. She challenged Pell to "look her in the eye" and call her "corrupt, debased, vicious, vile, wicked, degenerate" - words she says are synonyms for depraved. "To read that the Vatican has declared us to be 'seriously depraved persons' has appalled and angered me," she wrote.

In response Pell issued a statement saying: "The Church's views are well known and will not change. I support them. In these situations the first 11 verses of Chapter 8 of St John's Gospel give food for thought. I wish Monica well and acknowledge the contribution she has made. I continue to regret the path she has chosen." The passage referred to by Pell was the account of the woman taken in adultery, where Jesus said "let him who is without sin cast the first stone", but also tells the woman, "go and sin no more".

Hingston said she was "not surprised" at Pell's response, because he "had to follow the Vatican line", but it saddened her. "I wanted him to make some statement about who I am as a person to him", she said. "It's very disappointing that I got no response other than scripture." She said that she found the official Catholic teaching "insulting and degrading".

On pedophilia within the Church

In June 2002, Pell was accused of having sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at a Catholic youth camp in 1961, when he was a seminarian. He "stood aside" (but did not resign) as Archbishop as soon as the allegations were made public, but some weeks after the Church became aware of them. He vehemently denied all the accusations. Since the accuser declined to make a formal statement to the police, the Church's National Committee for Professional Standards appointed Alec Southwell, a former judge and a non-Catholic, to conduct an enquiry. In October, Southwell found that the allegations could not be sustained, reflecting the general view in the media that the allegations, made by a man with a long criminal history, lacked credibility.

The enquiry, however, provided an opportunity to air allegations that Pell, along with other Church leaders, had sought to cover up past allegations of child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by clergy. It was recalled that Pell had accompanied Father Gerald Ridsdale, convicted of sexual offences against children, to court at the latter's trial in 1993, but he never gave evidence in support of Ridsdale or sought to protect him.

Pell's observation only a month before the allegations against him became public that, "Abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people," provided much ammunition to those who said he had sought to deny and to minimise the importance of clerical sexual abuse. His record, however, suggests that this is not the case. One of his very first initiatives when he became Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 was to appoint a senior barrister as Australia’s first Independent Commissioner to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by clergy. He also established an independent compensation panel to make payments to victims and an independent service to provide counselling for them.

On other religions

In 2004, speaking to the Acton Institute on the problems of "secular democracy," Pell drew a parallel between Islam and Communism: "Islam may provide in the 21st century, the attraction that communism provided in the 20th, both for those that are alienated and embittered on the one hand and for those who seek order or justice on the other." An Australian Islamic spokesman, Keysar Trad, described this as inconsistent with the Pope's attempts to reach out to Muslims, and an inappropriate comparison: "Communism is a godless system, a system that in fact persecutes faith".

In a speech delivered to Catholic Business leaders at the Legatus Summit in February 2006, Pell asked the question "Can Islam and the Western democracies live together peacefully?" In examining this question, he discussed reasons for both optimism and pessimism, telling his audience: "Considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited. To stop at this proposition, however, is to neglect the way these facts are mitigated or exacerbated by the human factor." He went on to contrast the "moderate Islam" of Indonesia with the growing influence of "radical Islam" in Pakistan: "These two examples show that there is a whole range of factors, some of them susceptible to influence or a change in direction, affecting the prospects for a successful Islamic engagement with democracy."

The pessimistic elements of Pell's speech provoked a strong reaction, particularly his description of Islam as "not a tolerant religion" and his observation that the Koran contained "many invocations to violence". Refusing to engage the substantive points in Pell's speech, Trad described it as "totally subjective... off-the-cuff dismissal of the teachings of one of the world's great religions, certainly undermining the importance of his office.

On environmental concerns

Pell aroused criticism from Greens' Senator Christine Milne with the following comment in his 2006 Legatus Summit speech:

Some of the hysteric and extreme claims about global warming are also a symptom of pagan emptiness, of Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature. Belief in a benign God who is master of the universe has a steadying psychological effect, although it is no guarantee of Utopia, no guarantee that the continuing climate and geographic changes will be benign. In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Stem cell debate controversy

In June 2007 Cardinal Pell told Catholic NSW MPs that voting in favour of the bill would have consequences in their life within the church and stated they should refuse Holy Communion if they supported a conscience vote overturning the state ban on therapeutic cloning. These comments were condemned by and called hypocritical by members of the parliament, many drawing comparisons with comments made earlier in the year by Sheik Hilali.

Eulogy reforms

In February 2007 Cardinal Pell instituted new guidelines when it comes for family members to speak at funerals. Cardinal Pell said that "On not a few occasions, inappropriate remarks glossing over the deceased's proclivities (drinking prowess, romantic conquests etc) or about the Church (attacking its moral teachings) have been made at funeral masses" [4]. Pell's guidelines, make it clear the eulogy must never replace the officiating priest's homily, which should focus on God's compassion and the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus.

See also

• Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal

External links

• Sydney Catholic Archdiocese website
• the new Sydney based Seminary of the Good Shepherd
• Rainbow Sash Movement
• George Pell: Defender of the Faith Down Under... a biography of Cardinal Pell
• Issues of Faith and Morals... a book by Cardinal Pell